National Centre for Meteorological Research, Grenoble, France Possibly 1989 - 2006

Lewis Baltz made this photograph of the National Centre for Meteorological Research in Grenoble, France. It shows a strange interior, like a stripped-down stage set, all cold metal and orderly chaos. It’s the kind of space where you might expect scientists to be running around with clipboards, but it's empty, just a grid of uprights and wires, and those peculiar pale stripes on the floor. The composition, with its muted palette and meticulous framing, reminds me of some of the New Topographics photographers. I love the way the light catches on the metal, giving it a ghostly, almost ethereal quality. Baltz was interested in these kinds of overlooked, anonymous spaces. This photograph, like much of his work, is asking us to consider the beauty and strangeness of the everyday, the industrial, the unseen. It's a quiet but powerful reminder that art can be found in the most unexpected places.